Vacay in Texas-Part II

The day after Christmas, I drove the kids to College Station to visit Neil's family. We had a wonderful time with Tom and Ann, Kellie and Tom, their boys, and Kristen. We laughed a lot over the course of the week.

I've decided that Kristen could be locked in a white square room with nothing but a spoon, and she would somehow end up with a story that would leave me rolling on the floor, laughing. Either more funny things happen to her than to other people or she is a just a tremendous story teller. It was sad to see her head back to Utah! I wish that she would come to live with me.

Tom and Ann surprised the older kids with a few days at Winter Camp. Syd, Ainsley, and Zach spent the better part of two days at the recently built ice rink in College Station. Did you know that A&M has a hockey team? Neither did I, but they practice at this rink. The kids got skating lessons, played in the snow, went tubing on the ice, played ice baseball (with tennis balls and tennis rackets), and, basically, wore themselves out. I enjoyed the peace and quiet as well as a pedicure and lunch with Ann and Kris. Merry Christmas to me.

On New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, Ann planned a fireworks extravaganza for the kids in the backyard! Sparklers, Roman Candles, and some flower looking fireworks were so much fun for the kids. (Apparently Ann tells people all the time that the secret to raising two sons to become surgeons is to let them play with knives and matches. No one believes that she's telling the truth. Only, of course, the boys did this all without her.) So we've had the early introduction to pyrotechnics. My kids enjoyed pretending that their sparklers were wands the Disney stars use to make the Mickey Mouse ears on the Disney commercials.

I didn't get as much sleep as I did in Houston, but I relished the experience of travelling without an infant. Wow, I'd forgotten how easy life is when you put someone in a strange bed and they still manage to fall asleep. Zach and Audrey ended up in my twin bed a few times, so I switched to sleeping on the trundle. It was much more comfortable than contorting around Zach's legs and having Audrey push me off the side of the bed.

After a week in College Station, we travelled back to Houston to see Sam and Dan, Mom and Mamaw before we left for North Carolina. The plane trip home was great, again, and we were back to the grind of getting up for school the next morning. We missed visiting with my dad because he was terribly ill the entire three weeks. Poor guy.

On a separate note, my thoughts and prayers go out to the people of Haiti, their leaders, and the world community that is attempting to render aid. Please bear with yet another personal example of how my faith in Christ affects my worldview. After listening to some reports today about the statistical benefits of giving a poor country money and of micro-aid in the form of private charities, I am reminded of my friend, James, who served a mission in Haiti back in the day. I hope that his friends are well and are receiving the help that they need.

Apparently giving money to the federal branch of government in a developing nation does not automatically decrease widespread poverty or provide a measurable increase in quality of life for it's citizens. And if private charities cannot adequately meet this immense need, then leading people to Christ, teaching them the practical applications of His gospel, are a way to fill that gap.

That is not to say that we should quit the practice of providing aid to developing nations. The economic and moral issues surrounding that practice are above my pay grade to question. It is also not to say that private charities on the ground in Haiti are insignificant in either their presence or the scope of good that they do. My point is that when all else fails, the love of God will never fail them.

You might question how I can say that when more than fifty thousand people have died. Is there a purpose behind human suffering? A reason for a loss of such magnitude? How can I speak of God's love amidst this tragic course of events? Perspective and hope. We should look at events from a broader perspective than usual. The means to ease human suffering, and to ultimately overcome it, were provided before the world began.

We lived in heaven before we were born. God is the Father of our spirits as well as our bodies. The Old Testament tells us that He knew us before He formed us in our mother's womb. We knew Jesus Christ and we knew of His mission in mortality. The ability to overcome death and to reunite loved ones with their Father in a place of perfect joy was the result of His Atonement, His suffering in our behalf and His resurrection. Death is not the tragic end for the people of Haiti any more than it is for me. It is beyond sad, but their bodies will go the way of all the earth and their spirits will rise to meet God. For myself and for the families left behind in Haiti, I hope for the thing I cannot see: a home in that heaven where my Father is waiting for me.